By The Forces of Gravity

Girlhood friendship is the strongest force in the universe in this stirring memoir of 1970s Berkeley. Adrift in an ocean of drugs, parties, and hands-off parenting, twelve-year-old Becky Fish is in need of a life raft. Enter Luna, a warmhearted girl who thinks everything is “super fine”—including the girl she rechristens Becky Star Fish. Together, the two “soul friends” wend their wild way through peyote-powered trips to the desert, discussions of metaphysics, and more than a few crushes. But the pleasures of their hedonistic adolescence do not come without a cost—one that neither of them is ready to pay. Though it is, as the title page states, primarily about “loving Luna,” Fish’s memoir is also an unflinching portrait of the decay of hippie ideals. Becky might feel enlightened, but the reality is that she lives off popcorn, alcohol, and marijuana and spends much of her time fending off the sexual predations of older men. Luna truly shines against this seamy backdrop, as brightly as the moon she names herself for. The tenderness she prompts in Fish infuses every densely-inked illustration of this story. This is a paean to love—the love Becky and Luna have for each other, the love Luna has for the world, and ultimately, the love that leads one lost, lonely teenage girl to her future. (Jun.)